Handling Notes – Avro Lancastrian II

 

 

                                                                                                     

The aircraft is fitted out in the 9 passenger mode, with 2 Auxiliary Fuel Tanks holding 605 US Gals each.  The Lancastrian also has 3 wing tanks per side, numbered Port 3, Port 2 and Port 1; starboard tanks are numbered similarly.  Only the No 1 and 2 tanks feed the engines.  Fuel is transferred from the Aux and No 3 Tanks by means of tank selector cocks and transfer pumps operated by the Flight Engineer. Fuel capacities have been increased to take account of the smaller US Gallon and in the simulator the fuel weight with full tanks is correct for a Lancastrian II.

 

 

These notes have been adapted from AP4154A & B Pilot’s Notes, to suit the requirements of FS9

 

 

Check list before take off

 

 

Fuel Management

 

Immediately on boarding the aircraft, and before starting the engines the Flight Engineer must switch the tank selector cocks from the OFF to No.1 tanks. Pilots must read the notes on in flight fuel control at the end of this section. Failure to observe the Fuel Management Procedures may make trimming for cruise difficult; particularly when using the Auto Control Attitude System.

 

 

Trim: apply 2.0 of positive (Nose Up) trim.

 

Air intake: Cold (Radiator Shutters) – not yet available

 

Prop speed: Fully forward (Ctrl F3 – set to full when a/c loads)

 

Fuel: Engine fuel cocks ON, tank selectors to No 1, cross feed cock OFF (not on your version)

 

Flaps: 20 degrees DOWN

 

Take Off and Initial Climb

 

Take off is quite tricky, and requires care and experience. Captains must ensure that Co-pilots are given every opportunity to practice this procedure.

 

(i)                  Open the throttles to about zero boost against the brakes to see that engines are responding evenly.  Throttle back, release brakes, and open throttles gently to 14.1” of boost with prop rpm’s at 3000 (fully up); checking the tendency to swing to port by advancing the port throttles slightly ahead.  This will give as good a take off as taking off against the brakes, and renders it easier to correct the swing.

(ii)               You will find it much easier to use the throttle control on your stick and Ctrl F2/Ctrl F3 for rpm.  The prop rpm can be adjusted using the mouse wheel. Roll the wheel back towards you for rpm reduction and forwards for increased rpm; the mouse wheel control area is directly over the rightmost prop lever.  To achieve cruising speed trim it may be necessary to use the finer control afforded by the Ctrl F2/F3 keys since the mouse wheel method is a little coarse.

(iii)               Suggest you do your first few take offs from an outside (side on view).  This is the procedure.  Hands on your stick, at around 50 mph IAS, gently ease the stick forward, the tail will come up; when the tail is parallel to the ground apply gentle pressure and hold her at around 2/3 degrees pitch. At approximately 115 mph IAS ease the stick gently back with a smooth, continuous movement so as to lift her off at 120 mph IAS. On leaving the ground, the aircraft will tend to pitch up; you should endeavour to keep the pitch below 10 degrees. Bring the undercarriage up and Very Carefully ease the stick forward, maintaining a pitch angle of 3 to 4 degrees (this will improve acceleration to Flaps Up safety speed of 165 mph). When airspeed is at least 150 mph bring the flaps up by 1 position. At this stage, begin reducing the trim in steps until you have just 1 degree of nose up trim, at the same time, the stick should be gradually moved forwards to the neutral position. Note, that 1 degree of nose up trim is the requirement for the standard (with pax) recommended climb speed of 175 mph IAS. Information on settings for climb rates/speeds is given in the next paragraph.

Main Climb

There are three climb settings.

Standard recommended climb with passengers. Boost 7”, rpm at 2650. To achieve the climb speed of 175 mph IAS the trim requirement is initially first click of 1.0 degrees nose up; reducing to the second click of 0.9 when the speed drops to 174 mph at approximately 6,200 feet. Yields an average climb of 200 ft/min

Maximum range climb. Boost 7”, rpm 2650. Climb speed of 160 mph. Trim setting is 2.1 degrees 1st click and gives a climb of 310 ft/min.

Maximum performance climb. Boost 9”, rpm 2850. Climb speed 155 mph and a trim requirement of 2.6 degrees 1st click. Climb rate of 584 ft/min.

Above 7500 feet further small trim reductions will be required.

Maintain a shallow climb, and when airspeed has reach 150 mph bring the flaps up 1 position, let the speed continue to build until 165mph is attained and then bring the flaps fully up. Adjust trim, boost and rpm for the desired climb speed. Note the requirement to be at 9” boost, 2850 rpm or less at 1500 feet.

Cruise

Cruising speed will vary according to weight; see the chart below. The aircraft is equipped with an electro-pneumatic auto controls system. Pilots may choose to transition from the climb manually or by activating the Attitude Control system. (Auto Pilot Pop-up).

(i)                  Set boost to 7” and rpm a little above the suggested figure until the desired cruising speed is reached. For example: with a gross aircraft weight of 63750 lbs the cruising speed should be 189 mph IAS. Set the rpm to 2043 and reduce to 1975 rpm when this speed is achieved.

(ii)                Lancastrians did not have an Altitude Hold device in the autopilot system; but we have left one in for those who want an easy flight. Atl Hold button is just below the Auto Controls master cock on the left of the pop up. When you click the Alt Hold it automatically activates the Auto Controls (the lever will swing to the right). To go from Alt Hold to Attitude Control, first turn off Alt Hold (Auto Controls lever swings back left). Now click on the hand side of Auto Control lever and it will swing right and activate the system.

(iii)               To use the Attitude Control system, Auto Control switch must be activated. Hover the mouse over the gauge to the right of Auto Control lever and it will display the current pitch setting. With mouse to the left of this gauge a minus symbol displays; clicking on the minus reduces the pitch setting. To the right, a plus is shown and increases the pitch. Example, to set zero pitch hover on the left side and click once; move the mouse away and then back to see the readout for pitch. If necessary, click the minus again until you have zero pitch. Trim will be adjusted automatically to maintain the pitch setting.

Flying the Cruise

 

Typical cruising height (with passengers is 7500 ASL).  The columns below show gross wt and ideal speed for maximum range cruising.  The first two columns are taken directly from the Pilot’s Notes, while the remaining columns are the suggested change points in FS9. Using these figures it is possible to remain within 50’ plus or minus of your desired altitude. These intermediate adjustments give your passengers a much smoother ride.

 

The right hand columns assume a climb to 7500 feet using 175mph climb speed at 2650 rpm. Alternative climb rates and altitudes will produce a different weight at the top of climb. The figures below were achieved using ‘Attitude Control’. Lancastrian pilots used a chart to calculate gross aircraft weight, due to differences in US and Imperial Gallon we are unable to do this. We can ,however, get this data from the ‘Aircraft’, ‘Fuel’ tab in the FS9 menu. Or, more realistically, dig out that old slide rule, check the fuel gauges, calculate the weight of fuel used (6 lbs per US Gal) and deduct from our take off weight. Should keep you busy on a long trip!

 

Gross Wt (lbs)        Speed        %Fuel Left       Wt       Speed Approx

                           MPH IAS                                         IAS      RPM

68000                    195                     94        63750     189 mph  1975

66000                    192                     93        63400     188         1970

64000                    189                     91        63000     188         1965

62000                    186                     90        62750     187         1960

60000                    182                     88        62400     187         1955

58000                    180                     86        62000     186         1950

56000                    177                     86        61750     186         1945

54000                    175                     84        61500     185         1940

52000                    174                     82        61050     185         1936

50000                    172                     81        60800     184         1930

48000                    171                     80        60400     184         1926

                                                         79        60200     183         1920

                                                         77        59750     183         1916

                                                         76        59600     182         1911

                                                         74        59050     182         1906

                                                         73        58800     181         1901

                                                         71        58500     181         1896

                                                         70        58200     180         1892

                                                         68        57900     189         1887

                                                         67        57550     179         1882

                                                         66        57234     179         1877

                                                         64        56900     178         1872

                                                         63        56600     178         1867

                                                         61        56300     177         1862

                                                         60        56000     177         1857

 

Below 56000 lbs the correlation between simulator and Pilots Notes falls away, and is therefore not included. When I have a better solution I will issue a fix (Paul E).

 

 

Engine Limits

 

Take Off and Max Boost 14.1” at 3000 rpm up to 1500 feet altitude, with a 5 minutes time limit. Use this setting for take off when aircraft gross weight is below 65100 lbs. An 18” boost setting is available for weights of 65100 to 68000 lbs.

 

Max Climb Boost 9” at 2850 rpm with 1 hour continuous limit

 

Max continuous boost 7” at 2650 rpm

 

Engine Failure – Feathering.

 

Hold the feathering button in until the red light below the button goes out. Turn off the fuel cock for the affected engine, then switch off the appropriate magneto set.

 

Range

 

For an aircraft with full tanks and weight (65,000); using the max range settings, range for the climb and cruise will be approx 3700 nautical miles flying at 10000 feet. This can be increased a little by flying between 6 and 8000 feet.

 

Fuel Control

 

Start the flight on Nos. 1 tanks; when the contents of the No 1 tanks has fallen to 392 gallons switch to the No. 2 tanks and begin transferring fuel from the Aux 1 centre wing tank to the No. 1 tanks. Monitor the gauges carefully as the transfer pump cut off can sometimes fail, resulting in fuel loss as the No 1 tanks overfill. When the No 1 tanks are full (696 US Gal) switch back to the No 1 tanks and refill the No 2 tanks from the No 3 tanks. Continue to fly on the No 1 tanks until sufficient fuel has been used to allow the transfer of all fuel from the Aux 2 tank. Switch back to No 2 tanks and run on these until dry. Switch back to the No 1 tanks and finish the flight on these tanks.

 

Approach and Landing

 

These notes have been taken from the original Pilot’s Notes. I do not have the skills in FS to check them out; so users should view them as a guide rather than a rule.

 

Check List before landing

 

Reduce speed to below 200 mph if necessary, and set flaps to 20 degrees.

 

Preliminary stages of the approach should be carried out at 145 – 150 mph IAS with rpm at 2650.

 

Undercarriage down, prop rpm controls fully forward; flaps to full down on final approach. Reducing speed so as to cross the airfield boundary at 115 mph

 

 

Beam Approach

 

 

Preliminary

Approach

Inner Marker

On QDR

Outer Marker

On QDR

Outer Marker

On QDM

Inner Marker

On QDM

Indicated height

Feet

1500

1500

800

 

150

Action

Lower flap

20

- -  -

 

U/C Down

Flaps to 40

Full Flaps

Resultant change

Of trim

Nose Up

- - -

Slight nose down

Nose Up

Slight Nose Up 

IAS MPH

160 mph

160

160

138

126

RPM

2650

2650

2650

2850

2850

Boost PSI level

Flight

+3

+3

+6

+7

Throttle 

Boost PSI

(-500 ft/min)

-1

-1

+3

+2

Back

Boost

Overshoot

 

 

 

 

Slowly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remarks Use all 4 throttles together to regulate rate of descent

 

Overshoot:

Open throttles fully and rpm to max. Maintain airspeed at 138 mph. Raise undercarriage and at 100 raise flaps to 30 down. Increase speed to 160 mph IAS and raise flaps fully.